


2 AM

by PrivateBi



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: M/M, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 15:45:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13860915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrivateBi/pseuds/PrivateBi
Summary: Juno comes home in the middle of the night. Peter pretends to be asleep.





	1. Juno

It was just past two in the morning, and Juno was home earlier than expected. He had closed his case, dumped the culprit-of-the-day at the feet of the HCPD, and rushed home as soon as the credits had been transferred into his bank account. Before he’d left that afternoon, he’d told Nureyev to go to sleep without him, knowing that he would be lucky to be home before sunrise; now the darkened apartment told Juno that he had done so. Still, anxiety pricked at the back of his skull. He was too used to being left behind, too used to leaving others behind, to fully trust that Nureyev had stayed. Every time he came back home, he expected to find the apartment empty save for the lingering smell of exotic cologne. Despite the countless times this fear had proved unfounded, it remained. 

Juno knew he wouldn’t be able to relax until he had proven to himself that Nureyev was still there, so he went up to the bedroom door and, after a brief hesitation, opened it. Through the darkness, he could make out Nureyev’s long form lying still under the covers. He was talking in his sleep, mumbling words in a language Juno had never heard. He looked like a princess out of a fairy tale; otherworldly in his beauty, waiting to be awoken. In that moment, Juno wanted nothing more than to go to him, to wrap himself around this man and breathe him in. Indeed, he had taken the first few steps toward the bed when he remembered the mud-encrusted boots and sweat-stained clothing he was wearing. If he had been alone, he might have crawled into bed as he was, but Nureyev deserved better than that. Silently promising that he’d be back soon, he stepped out of the doorway and made his way to the bathroom for a shower. 

When he returned, still dripping, to the bedroom, he saw that Nureyev had turned so his back faced the door, causing the sheets to wrap around him like a cocoon. Juno crept over to his own side of the bed, and gently unwound the tangled blankets. He could feel Nureyev’s lingering warmth in them, and he briefly entertained the notion of holding them to his face to see if they had absorbed the smell of him too. 

Nureyev shivered slightly, so Juno slipped into bed behind behind him and arranged the blankets over the two of them. In spite of his apparent chill earlier, his skin was warm as Juno placed a hand on his back: a single point of connection, a simple expression of fondness. He noticed that the room was quiet, empty of sleep-slurred words. A little piece of Juno was disappointed by that; Nureyev’s voice was like velvet, even when he wasn’t consciously controlling it, and Juno could have happily fallen asleep to the sound of it every night for the rest of his life. 

An intrusive thought rose in his mind to crush that idea, so he put his arms around Nureyev and buried his face in his neck to smother it. He didn’t want to think about all the ways this could go wrong - all the ways that everything in his life had gone wrong - not while he was wrapped up in the smell of Nureyev’s cologne, and the warmth of the two of them together under covers. He would let himself have this good thing for as long as it lasted, damn the consequences. 


	2. Peter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second verse, same as the first. This time from Peter's POV.

Peter woke up to the soft hiss of a running shower, which told him that Juno must have just gotten home. The sun hadn’t risen yet, so he rolled over to check the alarm clock sitting on Juno’s cluttered bedside table, tangling himself further in the sheets as he did so. Without his glasses, he couldn’t quite make out the neon green numbers, but the first one looked vaguely like a two.   
Just then, he heard a loud thud from the bathroom, followed by “Aah! Goddamn soap,” and a second thud which was, presumably, Juno vindictively slamming the shampoo back down in its rightful place on the edge of the tub. Peter smiled fondly at the adorably clumsy mental image of his inamorata being bested by a wet plastic bottle, then closed his eyes and buried his face once more in his pillow, promising himself he wouldn’t fall back asleep until Juno had fallen asleep next to him. He still wasn’t used to having a constant person in his life, yet this prickly lady had managed to grumble his way into Peter’s heart to the point where he was missed when he wasn’t there. From experience, Peter knew that having Juno here beside him, snoring slightly, would be enough to chase away any and all of the memories of loneliness that had crept back into his mind in the detective’s absence.   
The sound of the shower stopped, and soon after footsteps approached the bedroom door. He would’ve gotten up and met Juno halfway across the room, would’ve checked for scrapes and bruises before sweeping him into a welcoming embrace, if he didn’t understand that Juno would’ve felt guilty if he found out he’d woken him. His detective didn’t need any more guilt in his life, even if it was small enough to be soothed with a few loving words, so instead he relaxed his body and slowed his breath in a facsimile of sleep. Slowly, the door opened - Juno was doing his best to be quiet, bless him - and the floorboards creaked only slightly as he made his way to the bed.   
Rough hands fluttered against Peter’s side as Juno moved aside the blankets, tickling slightly and causing a shiver to run down his spine. Juno’s hands were like everything else about him: calloused and covered in scars from the past, yet clever, and capable of surprising gentleness. Being touched by Juno was like nothing else - being with Juno was like nothing else - and every detail of every interaction between the two of them made Peter want more and more to stay with him. The thought of being tied down had always been a frightening one, but the idea of tethering his heart to this person felt not suffocating but freeing.   
When Juno lay down behind him, the lingering heat of the blankets paled in comparison to the warmth of the detective’s hand as it lay flat against his shoulder. In his time on Mars, Peter had learned the way Juno used actions to express the feelings he was afraid to give words to; and he was certain that this simple gesture was an expression of love in its most honest form.   
They stayed like that for a moment, connected in a small-yet-significant way until, almost suddenly, Peter felt Juno’s nose press into the back of his neck as the detective wrapped his entire self around him in a tight embrace. He could have cried at how good it felt, lying there and being held like he - not a facade or an alias, but he himself - was something precious.   
After a time, Juno’s hold on him loosened as he relaxed into sleep and began snoring slightly. Such a thing shouldn’t have been as endearing as it was, yet Peter swore he could feel his heart swell to make room for all the love it held for this man. He turned over to press a kiss into Juno’s hairline, before drifting back into dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> All my misc Penumbra stuff is on my tumblr, @ginnie-darling


End file.
